Professional guitarists as well as novice players often experience fatigue due to the weight of guitars. For example, guitarists may experience fatigue in their neck, shoulders, and arms when playing the guitar for an extended period of time. This is an undesirable side effect.
The vast majority of guitar bodies are made from wood. Wood has a resonance unmatched by other materials. It is the vibration of the wood when the strings are played that sets the tone of the guitar. Many acoustic guitar bodies have a bottom that is made of a heavier wood and a top that is made of a lighter wood. However, acoustic guitars do not require a sound that is as focused as the sound required and desired from an electric guitar. Accordingly, most electric guitar bodies are made from thick solid pieces of wood.
As a consequence, guitars made from solid pieces of wood generally have a more focused sound, but they tend to be heavier and can cause the above-described fatigue. One cheaper and lighter alternative may be a guitar made from laminates, which are thinner sheets of wood glued together. Although there are some good laminate guitars available, they generally cannot match the sound of solid-bodied guitars.
Other attempts have been made to reduce guitar weight by removing some of the wood. For example, air channels may be created in the guitar material. However, doing so weakens the structural integrity of the guitar. Removing wood may also interfere with the transmission of sonic vibrations, negatively altering the sound quality of the guitar. The air channels or air pockets may undesirably distort the sonic vibration. Other attempts have made guitars out of different types of material entirely. Some other materials explored for creating guitar bodies include acrylic and graphite. However, such guitars generally produce a lesser quality tonal response than wooden solid-bodied guitars.
The present disclosure provides desirable guitar weight reduction without weakening the structural integrity of the guitar body and without causing sound degradation.